Yesterday we received a message from the State Dept
Come home. Now.
That was the message from the State Department, which announced that U.S. citizens abroad should either return home or stay where they are as the coronavirus pandemic grows. The department raised its global travel advisory to Level 4, the top warning level, which is usually reserved for nations with war zones or beset by serious disruptions. The announcement is a recommendation, not a requirement, and many of the millions of Americans overseas may opt to stay put. Across the U.S., doctors, nurses and other front-line medical workers are confronting a dire shortage of masks, surgical gowns and eye gear to protect them from the virus.As one surgeon put it: “We are at war with no ammo.”
Of course we had already decided to stay in Costa Rica and wait it out here instead of returning to the states. Currently the numbers are looking pretty bleak there (and heaven forbid, they are all out of hand sanitizer and toilet paper!) and this, is only the beginning. IMO a big part of the problem lies in the delay in doing anything about the threat that was known to be coming weeks earlier. At this point the US is on the same trajectory as Italy (who by the way tried to warn us but of course we didn't listen). Oh and I read yesterday that several slimy US Senators took advantage of the situation and profited by trading stocks on insider information. SMH
I have to admit that in the beginning, I too, thought maybe more was being made out this than needed to be, but then I started researching the subject and getting more educated via information from other countries that had been hard hit, like China, S Korea, Italy & Spain ( all of which except for S Korea sat on their hands far too long before taking action) The results have been devastating.
This morning my home state of California (with 40 million people) had 1069 confirmed cases - and folks you have to take that # with a grain of salt because they are doing very little testing. Gov Gavin Newsom projects that as many as 25.5 million people will contract the virus in the next 8 weeks! We all know that there are not enough beds, or ventilators to take care of all of those people and more than likely triage will need to be inacted.
With borders now closed, "Costa Rica is still not planning a national quarantine or curfew, according to Michael Soto, Public Security Minister"
Costa Rica, pop 5million, curently has 89 confirmed cases and 2 deaths (both elderly people over 85), however those numbers are likely not accurate either, as they don't have enough test kits.
We are keeping ourselves healthy by ramping up our vitamin C, D3 and Black Seed oil intake, washing our hands a-lot, and self distancing. We understand that as the numbers mount, there will be little or no room for us to be treated in the hospitals here which are having a hard time already.
In addition, we have been self isolating for a couple of weeks. It really isn't that much different from what we do here anyway, minus the Friday expat Happy Hour! We went into town twice last week for supplies and will make another trip today. No more feria on Fridays for us. We have also cancelled our weekly housekeeper and Spanish teacher but continue to pay them for their services. We will begin video Spanish lessons with our teacher next week.
We are happy with our decisions.
Everyone has to do what is right for them and hopefully they will take into consideration the health and safety of "all" the people when they venture out. If we did not know it before, we all ALL in this together!
check out our Friday video above